Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT) announced plans to hold a hearing to examine the lack of competition in the ticketing industry in the wake of the Taylor Swift debacle that has dominated headlines for more than a week. The senators are the Chair and Ranking Member... Read more
A consortium of House Democrats is calling on the Department of Justice to take action against Ticketmaster/Live Nation, with 31 signing a letter addressed to Attorney General Merrick Garland that was made public on Friday. The letter asks for Garland and the DOJ to open a formal investigation of... Read more
The Department of Justice has an open investigation regarding Live Nation Entertainment, according to sources of the New York Times. The investigation is focused on whether or not Ticketmaster’s parent company “has abused its power over the multibillion-dollar live music industry,” according to the newspaper. News comes amid a... Read more
The Break Up Ticketmaster Coalition issued a blistering statement last week in the wake of Live Nation’s record Q3 earnings report, characterizing the entertainment giant as a fueling its record returns by harnessing “monopoly power run amuck.” The group is campaigning to see the Department of Justice take action... Read more
During an election season where it seems like agreement is in short supply, a group of consumer advocates appears to have found one thing that unites a huge swath of American society: dislike for Ticketmaster and its parent Live Nation Entertainment. The Break Up Ticketmaster campaign, launched in late... Read more
Rep. Bill Pascrell has written a letter to the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice requesting that the agencies target the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger as part of a joint inquiry designed at modernizing merger regulations. The New Jersey Democrat, who has been a staunch critic of the... Read more
U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) are urging the Department of Justice to investigate Live Nation’s “near-monopoly” in the live event ticket market. The Senators addressed their request in a letter to Jonathan Kanter, and Assistant Attorney General in the DOJ’s Antitrust Division. Their request centers... Read more
Economist Calls on Biden Administration to Break Live Nation Monopoly
ConcertsIndustryLegalMusicSportsTop Story September 23, 2021
Mark J. Perry, an economist and professor emeritus at the University of Michigan, published an Op-Ed in The Hill this week, calling on President Joe Biden to focus on Live Nation Entertainment as part of its efforts to battle monopolistic companies. The author, who is a senior fellow at... Read more
A pair of executives from Endeavor abruptly resigned from the Live Nation Entertainment Board of Directors last week amid anti-trust concerns. Endeavor Chief Executive Officer Ariel Emanuel and President Mark Shapiro resigned their positions after the Department of Justice “expressed concerns that their positions on the Live Nation Board... Read more
Ticketmaster has now acquired Rival, the ticketing startup founded by its former chief executive officer Nathan Hubbard, as first reported by Billboard. The deal came about following clearance from the Department of Justice in accordance with its monitoring of practices due to the now-extended consent decree of parent company... Read more
